Wednesday 13th August, Wonderful Weather and Walks

It was an absolutely outstanding day today, weather-wise. The sun was out and there was very little breeze so we had decided to go for some walks in the Arakoon National Park, a NP that has both history and stunning coastal scenery. We drove to the Trial Bay Goal, a place with a heritage listed former prison (built in 1886) and internment camp and a very interesting history. We had visited the goal last year and didn’t have time to do the walks so this was one of the reasons we decided to stay here. Our first walk from here was a short but scrambling walk along the edge of the coast, to view the stunning and beautiful coast. We spent time watching the waves from the swell, crash into the rocky coast. We clambered as far as we could and watched a brave fisherman, fishing from the rocks below us. We returned to the carpark and started pealing the layers off as the beautiful sunshine and exercise had made us quite warm. Our next walk was the Monument Hill walking track. This track was wide but had a very steady incline so was still a little challenging. The “Monument” was a historic monument built for German internees during WW1 who had died. The monument was built in 1918 but “blown up” in 1919 as some people were not happy having a monument for Germans during the war. Interestingly, in 1960 the monument was rebuilt and put back together. This walk also took us to a beautiful bay called, Little Bay. From here we drove to Smoky Cape Lighthouse, to enjoy more views over this magnificent coastline. We were able to do some whale watching here with the sea being so calm. It was obvious that there were many, many whales out in the sea not too far from the coastline. In the afternoon, we visited a bird-hide and enjoyed a rather boggy walk around the wetlands. We met a couple while on one of our walks and they had been at South West Rocks for a couple of weeks. They said that a week ago the weather here was atrocious, with a huge storm and rain event, sweeping across the area. The power was out for 3 days and we noticed in many places, workers were cutting up trees and branches that had fallen across the roads and power lines.